Sapphire HD6950 2GB DiRT3 Toxic Edition Review

Testing:

Temperature testing will be accomplished by loading the video card to 100% using Crysis Warhead with MSI's Afterburner overclocking utility for temperature monitoring. I will be using a resolution of 1920x1200 using 8xAA. I will use a 10-run sequence to run the test, ensuring that the maximum thermal threshold is reached. The fan speed will be left in the control of the driver package and video card's BIOS for the stock load test, with the fan moved to 100% to see the best possible cooling scenario for the overclocked load test. The idle test will be a 20-minute cooldown with the fan speeds left on automatic in the stock speed testing and bumped up to 100% when running the overclocked idle and load testing.

Settings

Monitoring with MSI Afterburner

Crysis Warhead 1920x1200 8x AA

10-run sequence

20-minute idle duration

Temperature measured in degrees Celsius

The thing that blew my mind the most about this video card is the cooler. Leaving the fan on automatic, we find temperatures that are typical to that of other AMD cards of the same caliber. However, once at full speed, even with a large overvolt, the cooler does an absolutely excellent job at keeping the temperature down. I almost couldn't believe my eyes!